Useful Pages

Friday, September 27, 2013

Tomorrow is the last day of the official Banned Books Week where we have an opportunity to reflect on all of the treasures we may have missed if individuals and groups had succeeded in suppressing the access to published works in libraries.

What are some of these titles that have been challenged or banned in the United States?

Monday, September 16, 2013

These interesting books which are overlooked possibly because they have unusual themes. Lucy's Bones uses historical artifacts to tell history stories. Unsolved Mysteries of American History examines mystifying events. Lost to Time looks at some of the stories left out of history books. Cleopatra's Nose are essay's by historian Daniel J. Boorstin illustrating specific historical subjects. The Weather Factor look at how weather has shaped historic events.

Great Objects and Artifacts of History, From Antiquity to the Modern Era by Harvey RachlinA series of historical vignettes which illuminate the story connected with some 50 relics dating from antiquity to the present. The relics range from the Shroud of Turin and Anne Frank's diary to George Washington's false teeth.

Unsolved Mysteries of American History re-creates the most mystifying events of our past, following some of our greatest historians as they search for the elusive answers. Spanning more than five centuries, from Leif Ericsson and Columbus through Watergate and Iran-Contra, Aron makes sense of all the latest discoveries and speculations. Here is everything you could ever want from a detective story: dramatic twists and turns, intellectual challenges, frustrating dead-ends, murderous mayhem, and thrilling espionage

Lost to Time: Unforgettable Stories That History Forgotby Martin W. SandlerWere the Wright brothers the first to fly? Did Paul Revere perform the most important midnight ride of the American Revolution? Was the Titanic the greatest peacetime maritime disaster? The answers may surprise you. From the medieval world to the epic battles of World War II, Lost to Time highlights a number of history's most fascinating and consequential, but unjustly forgotten people and events.

Cleopatra's Nose: Essays on the Unexpected by Daniel J. BoorstinThe Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Discoverers demonstrates the truth behind the aphorism that if Cleopatra's nose had been shorter, the face of the world would have been changed. Boorstin goes on to uncover the elements of accident, improvisation and contradiction at the core of American institutions and beliefs.

This absorbing & invigorating historical survey looks at the surprising & unexpected ways in which human history has been decisively altered at critical moments by the unaccountable whim of nature. From the campaigns of the Roman legions in Central Europe to U.S. forces in Vietnam the course of human events has often been decided by the elements.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Two new steampunk novels this month Fiendish Schemes by the founder of the genre and Jack Cloudie by Hunt who excells at creating a Dickensian world. Also two new entries in long running series by Feist and Novik and the second in Tad Williams new fantasy series.

Happy Hour in Hellby Tad Williams
"Ive been told to go to Hell more times than I can count, but this time Im actually going. " My name is Bobby Dollar, sometimes known as Doloriel, and of course, Hell isnt a great place for someone like me, Im an angel. They don’t like my kind down there, not even the slightly fallen variety. Not only do I have to sneak into Hell, make my way across thousands of miles of terror and suffering to reach Pan- demonium, capital of the fiery depths, but then I have to steal my girlfriend Caz right out from under the burning eyes of one of most powerful demons in all of the netherworld and smuggle her out again, past demon soldiers, hellhounds, and all the murderous creatures imprisoned there for eternity.

Fiendish Schemes by K. W. Jeter
In 1986 K. W. Jeter coined the term "steampunk," applying it to his first Victorian-era science fiction alternate-history adventure Infernal Devices. At last he has returned with Fiendish Schemes, a tale of George Dower, son of the inventor of Infernal Devices. Dower is enticed by the prospect of financial gain into a web of intrigue with ominously mysterious players who have nefarious plans of which he can only guess.

Blood of Tyrantsby Naomi Novik
His Majesty's Dragon,
readers have been entranced by the globe-spanning adventures of the
resolute Capt. William Laurence and his brave but impulsive dragon,
Temeraire. Shipwrecked and cast ashore in Japan with no memory of
Temeraire or his own experiences as an English aviator, Laurence finds
himself tangled in deadly political intrigues that threaten not only his
own life but England's already precarious position in the Far East.

Magician's Endby Raymond E. Feist
An uneasy quiet has settled upon Midkemia in the wake of a surprise invasion. But the land is far from peaceful. Leaderless, the Kingdom is on the brink of anarchy and civil war, unless Hal ConDoin, Duke of Crydee, and his brothers can rally their allies to crown a new king. They must move quickly, for war has left the land vulnerable to an agency of horrific destruction not of this world. No one is safe, not even the Star Elves whose city deep in the Grey Tower Mountains has come under attack by an ancient darkness that seeks to extinguish every living thing in Midkemia.

Jack Cloudieby Stephen Hunt
Jack Cloudie is a tale of high adventure and derring-do set in the same Victorian-style steampunk world as Stephen Hunt's acclaimed The Court of the Air.Thanks to his father's gambling debts, young Jack Keats finds himself on the streets and trying to survive as a pickpocket. Following a daring bank robbery gone badly awry, Jack narrowly escapes the scaffold, only to be pressed into the Royal Aerostatical Navy. Assigned to the most useless airship in the fleet, serving under a captain who is most probably mad, Jack seems to be bound for almost certain death.